Extra credit opportunity

The following optional assignment may be completed for extra credit up to 5% of the total course grade.

  1. Read a book from the following list
    • The Phytochemical Landscape by Mark Hunter
    • Critical Transitions in Nature and Society by Marten Scheffer
    • Evolutionary Ecology of Birds by Peter Bennett and Ian Owens
    • The Theory of Ecological Communities by Mark Vellend
    • The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography by Stephen Hubbell
    • Metapopulation Ecology by Ilkka Hanski
    • Parasitoid Population Biology by Michael Hochberg and Tony Ives
    • Principles of Social Evolution by Andrew Bourke
  2. Write a book review of 500-1000 words describing (a) the main thesis of the book, (b) the main argument and evidence presented, and (c) your evaluation of the thesis and the argument
  3. Submit your review as a pdf attachment by email to Dr. Drake by Thursday, December 8.

Reading for Tuesday, November 11

In place of a textbook chapter, the reading for Tuesday, November 11 will be the following paper, which is based on doctoral dissertation research performed by Marcus Zokan in the Odum School of Ecology. This paper investigates some hypotheses for the maintenance of zooplankton diversity in the Carolina Bays using “mesocosm” experiments. It uses methods we’ve been studying in class to quantify diversity and investigates a theory not feasible to study using the survey data we’ve been analyzing. The paper is posted here and also on the class schedule.

Zokan, M. & J.M. Drake. 2015. The effect of hydroperiod and predation on the diversity of temporary pond zooplankton communities. Ecology & Evolution 5:3066-3074.